


All Times Are Soon

by ldysatyr



Category: Mindhunter (TV 2017)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 15:42:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12867756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ldysatyr/pseuds/ldysatyr
Summary: A short vignette set some time during the road school montage in episode two.





	All Times Are Soon

Despite months of travelling together, there are still moments when Bill turns around and is surprised that Holden is there.  Mostly he is a quiet presence, a snuffling sound in the middle of the night or an arm that darts out to take equipment from him.  Nancy tells him all the time that he falls in love too quickly.  He did with her. Brian as well, he supposes.  The three year old just looked at him like he needed him and Bill was signing the paperwork the next day.  It is similar with Holden. 

“Who decided that basil and lemon would be good ingredients to put in soap?” Bill complains, fresh out of the shower and toweling his hair.  He hates hotels.  He hates their tiny sample toothpaste tubes and their scratchy sheets.  “I feel like a Thanksgiving Day turkey.”

Holden is thumbing through some newspaper clippings.  He pauses to regard him seriously, “I think you smell fine.”

Bill chucks the towel aside.  “What’re you doing?” He asks, taking a seat on the adjacent bed.

“Take a look,” he answers in that flat earnest tone he has. He hands Bill one of his clippings.  Bill briefly scans the headline and groans, “Feline mutilation? I don’t think the Bureau has jurisdiction in Narnia.”

Holden tilts his head in curiosity, “You’ve read Lewis’s books?”

“Sure,” replied Bill, “There once was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”

Holden takes the clipping back from his partner.  “ _Voyage of the Dawn Treader_.  Figures that would be your favorite.  Mine was _Silver Chair_.”

They don’t do this.  Share information.  Talk about movies or sports or family.  Bill generally regards himself as a good man who cares about people.  He finds getting to know them sometimes gets in the way of that.  His tone is uncertain when he inexplicably asks, “Why?”

“Why does it figure that _Dawn Treader_ is your favorite or why is mine _Silver Chair_?”

“The former,” Bill says.

Holden considers this for far longer than such a simple question merited.  Bill wonders whether it’s because he is wondering how to answer him or if he is considering not answering him at all.

After a rather long pause, Holden replies, “We were poor, but my dad would take me to the bookstore and let me have one book every year for my birthday.  I did eventually get to read all seven of the books in the series, but I picked _Silver Chair_ first.” A shrug.  “I remember liking the picture on the front the best.” 

Bill tries to imagine a young Holden reading _Silver Chair_ with his father.  It’s hard to picture Holden as a child.  His personality dictates that he instead envision a much smaller version of the man in front of him, suit and all, flipping through pictures of eviscerated bodies as if it were an atlas.  

“Want to know how I knew _Dawn Treader_ was your favorite?”  Holden asks in his know-it-all voice.

“Nope,” Bill replies, putting extra pop into the “p.” 

Holden blinks and then continues, as undeterred as always.  “I’m collecting information on perpetrators of animal torture, although it’s proven to be a bit of a challenge…the murder of Fluffy isn’t typically considered newsworthy.”

With Holden, of course, it all comes back to that.  “You think at some point these people move on from cats and dogs to their girlfriends or wives?”

“A form of escalation,” Holden concludes, his tone approving.  

Bill pulls a white dress shirt from his suitcase.  While there are moments Bill is surprised Holden is there, there are also moments when he wishes the kid would just shut the hell up.   

~ ~ ~

Fog on the bridge means their thirty minute drive into Oakland from San Francisco takes about two hours.  The police chief, a behemoth of a man with a thick beard, greets them warmly despite their tardiness.  Holden fires up the projector and Bill launches into his lecture with little preamble. 

Bill hasn’t even gotten both arms back into his jacket before a young Asian man approaches him and offers his hand.  He’s introduced to Detective Greg Kimura.  Detective Kimura doesn’t look much older than Holden, although the blue and yellow paint smudges on his hands indicate he has a sprog or two at home.  Bill takes the proffered hand with a polite nod as he and Holden are steered towards the detective’s office.

“I wasn’t paying much attention to your lecture,” Kimura starts off apologetically, “I’ve been waiting to get your opinion on this case since I heard you two were rolling into town.”

Holden nods as if this were expected, “How can we help?”

Four murdered teenaged girls in the last twelve months.  Two were stabbed to death, while the others were strangled.  The youngest of the four was only fourteen years old.   

“Besides the fact that the victims were all young females, are there other reasons you believe these murders are connected?”  Bill asks as Holden hands him, one by one, photographs of the girls and of the dump sites.

“Two of the victims, Julia Stewart and Evelyn Rogers, were found less than a mile from one another along the Nimitz Freeway,” Kimura answers, “Georgia Spencer and Colleen Hayes were both found in grassy areas, Georgia in a park and Colleen in a field only a few miles from the freeway.  All four girls were last seen walking home alone from school.”

“Did they know one another?” Holden asks, not looking up from the photo in his hands.

“According to friends and family, they didn’t, although Julia Stewart and Georgia Spencer went to the same school at some point,” Kimura replies.

Holden looks up at the young detective. “Stabbing and strangling are very intimate ways to murder someone.  The murderer had to get very close.”

“You think they knew their killer?” Kimura asks.

Bill shakes his head.  “These girls were young and petite.  An older man could have easily overpowered them.”

“Definitely male.  Young.  In his 20s or 30s at the most.  Impotency explains why he stabs and strangles them instead of raping or molesting them.”  Holden adds.  “A drifter.  Saw the girls walking alone while driving past their school and waited for an opportunity to approach them.”

“You’re looking for a truck driver or a dock worker or some seasonal employee in town for a few months,” Bill agrees.

“Shit,” Kimura swears, “You mean this guy may have already skipped town?”

“If he hasn’t skipped town, you’ll know,” answers Holden.

Bill stands and hands the photographs back to the detective.  Holden rises as well and shakes Kimura's hand.  “Try contacting the SFPD or police departments in other major cities.  This guy has had practice elsewhere,” Bill adds solemnly.

~ ~ ~

Bill reaches for his cigarettes before pulling out the keys to the rental, taking a lungsful before starting the car. 

“They’re never going to catch who murdered those girls,” Holden says.  It’s not a question, so Bill does not bother to answer.  He agrees.  

They drive to the airport in silence.  Bill leaves Holden at the gate to search for a payphone and a coffee cart.  He finds both and calls Nancy while juggling his cup and a few sugar packets.

She answers after the second ring to ask, “You coming home tonight?”

He checks his watch. She should have just gotten home at this hour.  “Yeah.  Flight’s on time for a change.  I have to drop Holden off, but I’ll be home soon.”

“I want to meet this partner of yours,” Nancy states firmly, like Holden is his date to the prom or something, but she asks so little of him that he agrees readily enough.

“Hey Nance,” he starts, watching a group of children chase each around in the terminal, “Those books your sister got Brian… I was thinking we could start reading to him.”

“That’s a great idea,” she enthuses. “I’ll dig around for them.  Do you have a favorite we should start with?”

Bill looks up at an annoyed Holden, who appears to have been trying to get his attention to return to their gate.  “Just pick the one with the best cover.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title pulled from C.S. Lewis’s "Voyage of the Dawn Treader." Prior to 1994, there was no formal order for the books in "The Chronicles of Narnia." Detective Kimura’s case is loosely based on the real-life unsolved murders of four teenaged girls in Alameda County in the 1980s.


End file.
